Experts weigh in on San Onofre restart plan

Daniel Hirsch, a lecturer at UC Santa Cruz, listens intently as moderator UCI English professor Jack Miles sets up a discussion on the safety of nuclear power Tuesday at UC Irvine. On the panel were, from left, Larry Agran, Irvine council member, Mark Nelson, Southern California Edison, Hirsch, and William Parker, Ph.D., Professor, UC Irvine. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

An expert panel presented views Tuesday from all sides of Southern California Edison's plan to restart one of its shuttered reactors at the San Onofre nuclear plant.

The panel, which included a physicist, an activist, an Edison representative and Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran, took turns arguing for or against the restart – or more generally, nuclear power – during a two-hour discussion in front of about 150 lunch guests hosted by UC Irvine's Newkirk Center for Science and Society.

“Nuclear energy is the cleanest and safest of the alternatives available for providing baseload electrical power,” said William Parker, a UCI professor of physics, who did not address San Onofre directly. “It's safest for the world. It's safest for public health.”

Agran invoked the horrors of the nuclear crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant after a massive earthquake and tsunami in March last year, as well as those of Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union, to argue against a restart at San Onofre.

“By any standards, these facilities are old, and in some respects, decrepit, and their continued operation I believe poses an unacceptable risk to public health and safety,” said Agran, who also called evacuation plans in case of a nuclear emergency at the plant “totally inadequate.”

Earlier this month, Edison presented a plan to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for restarting the Unit 2 reactor at San Onofre. The plant's reactors, Units 2 and 3, have been offline since January.

Unit 2 had been taken down for routine maintenance, but on Jan. 31 a small release of radioactive gas prompted the shutdown of Unit 3. Investigations of both units revealed unexpected wear among thousands of metal tubes that circulate water heated by the reactors through massive steam generators, two for each reactor. That, in turn, was traced to design flaws in the steam generators that were installed in a $671 million operation from 2009 through early 2011.

Edison's plan calls for a restart of Unit 2 at 70 percent power to eliminate the vibrations believed to have caused the tube wear. The reactor would be taken offline again after five months to make sure it was functioning properly.

The utility company has not presented plans to restart Unit 3, which has tube problems that are considered more significant.

NRC officials say they must conduct a thorough review of Edison's plans before deciding whether to approve them. The process likely will take months.

Separately on Tuesday, the California Public Utilities Commission said it will vote on whether to conduct an investigation of the San Onofre outage, and how it relates to utility rates, at a meeting on Oct. 25 in Irvine.

Also on Tuesday, the California Public Utilities Commission said it will vote at an Oct. 25 meeting in Irvine about whether to conduct an investigation of the San Onofre outage and how it relates to utility rates.

During the panel discussion, Mark Nelson – Edison's director of generation planning and strategy – said a large body of engineers and outside experts developed and reviewed the startup plan ahead of NRC's review.

He also told the group that plants like San Onofre provide reliable “baseload” power, and that Southern California “dodged a bullet” with the plant shutdown over the summer – in part by temporarily reactivating two natural gas-fired power units in Huntington Beach that had been taken offline.

“We went out with a lot of conservation messages, and people responded,” Nelson said. “We also had a pretty easy summer. It wasn't a brutal 1-in-10 or1-in-20 summer.”

But Daniel Hirsch, a UC Santa Cruz lecturer on nuclear policy and president of the activist group Committee to Bridge the Gap, was critical of Edison's restart plans and questioned the safety of the nuclear plant.

He also questioned Edison's contention that the problems differ significantly in Unit 2 and Unit 3, with a more unusual type of tube wear in Unit 3.

“They're both quite sick puppies,” he said. “The fever is a little higher in one than the other, but they're both very ill.”

Daniel Hirsch, a lecturer at UC Santa Cruz, listens intently as moderator UCI English professor Jack Miles sets up a discussion on the safety of nuclear power Tuesday at UC Irvine. On the panel were, from left, Larry Agran, Irvine council member, Mark Nelson, Southern California Edison, Hirsch, and William Parker, Ph.D., Professor, UC Irvine. JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
William Parker, Ph.D., Professor, UC Irvine, discusses the environmental costs of assorted energy technologies at a panel discussion Tuesday at UC Irvine. The topic was "How safe is nuclear power? Implications for San Onofre." JEBB HARRIS THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Ace Hoffman, an independent researcher from Carlsbad, documents the panel discussion on the safety of nuclear power Tuesday at UC Irvine. JEBB HARRIS THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Mark Nelson, Director, planning and strategy, Southern California Edison, listens as a fellow panelist critiques the safety of the San Onofre nuclear plant t an Irvine panel discussion Tuesday. JEBB HARRIS THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Council member Larry Agran represented the City of Irvine at Tuesday's panel discussion on nuclear safety at UC Irvine. JEBB HARRIS THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Daniel Hirsch, a lecturer at UC Santa Cruz, makes a point as he criticizes the safety of systems at the San Onofre nuclear plant. He spoke at a panel discussion Tuesday at UC Irvine. JEBB HARRIS THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
About 150 audience members listened Tuesday at UC Irvine to a panel discussion on the safety of nuclear power. The topic was "How safe is nuclear power? Implications for San Onofre." JEBB HARRIS THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Daniel Hirsch, a lecturer at UC Santa Cruz, at right, shows graphics as he criticizes the safety of systems at the San Onofre nuclear plant. He spoke at a panel discussion Tuesday at UC Irvine. JEBB HARRIS THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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